A DIGGERS Rest mother fears access to kindergartens will soon be restricted due to Melton shire’s population growth.
Mothers’ Network president Deborah Watson said the council was doing what it could and did more than other municipalities with its community funding. But she said state and federal governments needed to do more to help an area where six babies were being born each day.
“Melton shire is a huge growth area. The responsibility of three and four-year-old kindergarten cannot be left just up to council,” Mrs Watson said.
“As it is they do put a lot of money back into the community. Funding needs to come from other places.”
Mrs Watson said the demand for kindergarten places was so great that an occasional-care room at the Springside Community Centre in Caroline Springs had been turned into a three-year-old kindergarten for two days a week.
She said parents lined up at the civic centre each March to enrol their children for kindergarten for the following year.
“People have missed out on their preferred centre due to work commitments and not being able to attend on the day,” Mrs Watson said.
“I envision the lack of kindergartens and then high schools will be a problem in the next four years due to the large population increase.”
This comes after Western Metropolitan Greens MP Colleen Hartland accused the state government of shifting costs onto councils, including Melton, in this month’s budget.
Ms Hartland claimed that councils would be forced to cover the entire cost of new kinders, but a spokesman for Children and Early Childhood Minister Wendy Lovell said the government had reduced the burden. “Far from increasing the cost burden for kindergartens to councils, the government has significantly reduced it. The maximum individual grants to councils were significantly increased by 50per cent.”
Mayor Justin Mammarella said Melton was “making do” with kinders. He said $26million in grants referred to by Ms Lovell would be announced this month. “The results will be indicative of whether the government understand what we are going through at the moment with the population growth.”
